"I know more " than the general's do." -- Donald Trump
If I weren't speechless, I'd have something to say.
But if I am indeed left without words, it's probably because now, in a time of optics and symbolism, this one says it all.
What "this one" is, would be America's imbecilic, self-indulgent "commander-in-chief," donald trump, barging like a rogue elephant through a procession of his fellow leaders of the western alliance as they prepared to assemble for a live-shot, photo-op at NATO headquarters in Brussels. It was a boorish, vulgar example of American "exceptionalism" made much worse by the fact that while on his one-man stampede, trump physically shoved at least one alliance member -- Montenegro Prime Minister Duscko Markovic -- out of his way.
Perhaps such aggression against a fellow alliance member shouldn't be all that surprising considering that NATO, the West's military bulwark against Soviet aggression, is an alliance for which trump appears to have zero respect and which he seems intent on weakening . For the alliance, the fateful twist in this circumstance is that trump's position as NATO's de facto leader automatically pushes him halfway toward that goal.
Perhaps some insecurity about that status -- de facto leader -- is what spurred trump into his Il Duce-esque bogarting of Markovic and other NATO leaders last week. But what also makes trump's bum-rushing of the stage so appallingly reprehensible was the compulsion to step forward in asserting his proprietorship of an inherited position in such an unruly manner.
For trump to physically assert himself over fellow members of an alliance tasked with the collective military protection of the entire Western Hemisphere -- and to do so in such a desperate, chest-puffing, lips-pursing manner -- seemed so much the height of boorish power-tripping by an insecure ego-maniac. The force behind his sneering determination to step forward and aggressively flaunt his status as leader of the West's military alliance was in sharp contrast to the negligible sense of urgency he displayed when presented with the opportunity -- during a time of war -- to step forward to serve in his own country's military.
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